A Study on Employee Engagement in Cochin International Airport Limited

A Study on Employee Engagement in Cochin International Airport Limited –Smitha Syed Ali1 ABSTR A CT A successful employee engagement strategy helps create a community at the workplace and not just a workforce. When employees are effectively and positively engaged with their organisation, they form an emotional connection with the company. This affects their attitude towards both their colleagues and the company’s clients and improves customer satisfaction and service levels. There’s more than one way to improve the level of employee engagement in a company. In fact, there are many different things that companies not only can do, but need to do. The paper aims to make an attempt to understand the extent to which employee engagement is relevant in an International Airport like Cochin International Airport Ltd operating in the commercial capital of Gods own country, the State of Kerala. Fifteen Human resource factors have been identified as attributes leading to employee engagement which will be discussed with respect to Cochin International Airport Limited. A five step action plan has also been developed to measure the extent to which employees are engrossed in their work in Cochin International Airport limited. Employee engagement can be successful if every employee is treated with respect and dignity; if empowered to take decision in his/her work area; if not punished for making mistake but to be taken as new learnings; if encouragement, support and resources is given to the employee. The analysis also tells us that when trust, values and a purpose-inspired mission do not drive behavior in a company, far fewer of these engagement traits exist. Even worse, extremely low levels of these engagement sources produce a “disconnected” group of employees who work against or even sabotage company objectives. Our existing approach to employee engagement only produces brick-layers: people who perform tasks for money; people who may briefly become more productive in these tasks via one-off awards, bonuses and other motivations (whose positive effects 1 Faculty, School of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kerala Email: [email protected] 02-.indd 24 1/23/2013 5:08:27 PM 25 Drishtikon: A Management Journal Volume 4 Issue 1 Sept. 2012-March 2013 fade as quickly as sugar highs); and people who feel stuck in unsatisfying, dead-end jobs when they truly desire careers. By misunderstanding, mismanaging and mis-measuring employee engagement, we are failing to provide a signal to our nation’s most valuable resource: young workers. These people do not know where to invest their energy, talent, skills, character and creativity. They are looking for careers, but we can barely provide them with jobs. Further, by deploying trust, values and a purpose-driven mission as the primary drivers for all business activities, interactions and decisions, companies can transform a workforce of bricklayers into a highly coordinated and inspired team of cathedral-builders whose inspired work generates both success and significance for our companies and the world. Key Words: Employee Engagement, Cochin Airport, Empowerment, Talent management INTRODUCTION Employee engagement is the level of commitment and involvement an employee has towards their organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. It is a positive attitude held by the employees towards the organization and its values. The Paper focuses on how employee engagement is an antecedent of job involvement and what should a company like Cochin International Airport Limited do to make the employees engaged. Engagement at work is essentially conceptualized as harnessing effectiveness of organizational members in their work roles. In engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances. A flow in engagement can be defined as the ‘holistic sensation’ that, people feel when they act with total involvement. Flow is the state in which there is little distinction between the self and environment. When individuals are in Flow State, little conscious control is necessary for their actions. Employee engagement is the thus the level of commitment and involvement an employee exhibits towards their organization and its values. An engaged employee is aware of business context, and works with colleagues to improve performance within the job for the benefit of the organization. The organization must work to develop and nurture engagement, which requires a two-way relationship between 02-.indd 25 1/23/2013 5:08:27 PM A Study on Employee Engagement in Cochin International Airport Limited 26 employer and employee.’ Thus Employee engagement is a barometer that determines the association of a person with the organization. Job involvement is thought to depend on both need saliency and the potential of a job to satisfy these needs. Thus job involvement results form a cognitive judgment about the needs satisfying abilities of the job. Jobs in this view are in fact tied to self-perception. Engagement differs from job in, as it is concerned more with how the individual employee feels during the performance of his or her job. Furthermore engagement entails the active use of emotions. Finally engagement may be thought of as an antecedent to job involvement in that individuals who experience deep engagement in their roles should come to identify with their jobs. It is believed that the engagement challenge has a lot to do with how employee feels about the about work experience and how he or she is treated in the organization. It has a lot to do with emotions which are fundamentally related to drive bottom line success in a company. There will always be people who never give their best efforts no matter how hard Human Resource and line managers try to engage them. “But for the most part, employees want to commit to companies because doing so satisfies a powerful and a basic need in connect with and contribute to something significant”. The Paper will now analyze the aspects of employee engagement and then will categorize the employees accordingly. ASPECTS OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT There are three basic aspects of employee engagement according to the global studies which are discussed below ∑ The employees and their own unique psychological make-up and experience ∑ The employers and their ability to create the conditions that promote employee engagement ∑ Interaction between employees at all levels. Thus it is largely the organization’s responsibility to create an environment and culture conducive to this partnership, and a win-win equation. 02-.indd 26 1/23/2013 5:08:28 PM 27 Drishtikon: A Management Journal Volume 4 Issue 1 Sept. 2012-March 2013 Categories of Employee Engagement For the purpose of the Paper, we can classify people in an organization as follows:- ∑ Engaged--”Engaged” employees are builders. They want to know the desired expectations for their role so they can meet and exceed them. They’re naturally curious about their company and their place in it. They perform at consistently high levels. They want to use their talents and strengths at work every day. They work with passion and they drive innovation and move their organization forward. ∑ Not Engaged---Not-engaged employees tend to concentrate on tasks rather than the goals and outcomes they are expected to accomplish. They want to be told what to do just so they can do it and say they have finished. They focus on accomplishing tasks vs. achieving an outcome. Employees who are not-engaged tend to feel their contributions are being overlooked, and their potential is not being tapped. They often feel this way because they don’t have productive relationships with their managers or with their coworkers. ∑ Actively Disengaged--The “actively disengaged” employees are the “cave dwellers. “They are “Consistently against Virtually Every- thing.” They’re not just unhappy at work; they’re busy acting out their unhappiness .They sow seeds of negativity at every opportunity. Every day, actively disengaged workers undermine what their engaged coworkers accomplish. The problems and tensions that are fostered by actively disengaged workers can cause great damage to an organization’s functioning. IMPORTANCE OF ENGAGEMENT Engagement is important for managers to cultivate given that disengagement or alienation is central to the problem of workers’ lack of commitment and motivation. Meaningless work is often associated with apathy and detachment from ones works. In such conditions, individuals are thought to be estranged from their selves. Other Research using a different resource of engagement like involvement and enthusiasm has linked it to such variables as employee turnover, customer satisfaction – loyalty, safety and to a lesser degree, productivity and profitability criteria. An organization’s capacity to manage employee engagement is closely related to its ability 02-.indd 27 1/23/2013 5:08:28 PM A Study on Employee Engagement in Cochin International Airport Limited 28 to achieve high performance levels and superior business results. Some of the advantages of engaged employees are depicted below. ∑ Engaged employees will stay with the company, be an advocate of the company and contribute to the bottom line business success. ∑ They will normally perform better and are more motivated. ∑ There is a significant link between employee engagement and profitability. ∑ They form an emotional connection with the company. ∑ It builds passion, commitment and alignment with the organization’s strategies and goals. ∑ Increases employees’ trust in the organization. ∑ Creates a sense of loyalty in a competitive environment. ∑ Provides a high-energy working environment. ∑ Makes the employees effective brand ambassadors for the company. A highly engaged employee will consistently deliver beyond expectations. The employees should be encouraged to ask ‘whether they have the opportunity to do what they do best everyday’.

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